


How Nick Mallory Won The Heart of Arianrhod Hyde

by darksylvia



Category: Magids Series - Diana Wynne Jones
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-07
Updated: 2010-04-07
Packaged: 2017-10-31 02:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/338800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darksylvia/pseuds/darksylvia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick courts Roddy, and learns a few things about himself in the process.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Nick Mallory Won The Heart of Arianrhod Hyde

**Author's Note:**

> Based on this prompt: Nick/Roddy future!fic (set in the Magid universe from _Deep Secret_ and _The Merlin Conspiracy_ ).
> 
> I couldn't find a willing beta, or even anyone to Brit-pick this, so please believe me when I say that I will not be offended if you correct my phrasing or word usage or random typos in comments. Also, if you want to see, these are who I would cast as [older!Roddy and older!Nick](http://darksylvia.livejournal.com/596995.html).
> 
> Originally posted in [The Tough Guide to Fic](http://toughguidetofic.livejournal.com/) livejournal for the Diana Wynne Jones ficathon.

The first thing Nick tries to get Maxwell Hyde to teach him is how to properly travel between worlds. He honestly isn't expecting it when Maxwell hedges and hems and haws, and then mutters about asking Upstairs. But it doesn't take Nick long to figure out that he's just putting Nick off in hopes that he'll forget about it, which is frankly ludicrous. So when Maxwell returns Nick to earth, he goes to Rupert. Rupert is much more direct. He tells him that the Upper Room have let it be known that Magids aren't to teach him that.

Nick halfheartedly tries to get around Maree, but as a Magid in training, he already knows what her answer will be. And that, if nothing else, utterly cements Nick's decision that he no longer wants to be a Magid at all, no matter what sort of Deep Secrets they sit on. 

So Nick thinks about it for a bit, and he decides that the thing to do is to remember how he managed to wander off into that forest at the edge of the Plantagenate empire, when he first met Romanov. He doesn't really want to walk the dark paths again, but he doesn't know how to just start forward the way Romanov or the Magids walk out of the world. He borrows some of his aunt's books on meditation, he sits down on his bedroom floor with his back against his bed, and he tries.

He doesn't manage it that first time, but he keeps trying, grasping on to the memory of not-sleeping-but-not-being-awake that he remembers from that night. And after ten days of dreamy, determined attempts (and dad starting to actually notice the way Nick has suddenly gone vague), he manages to see the bluish path leading sideways from the corner of his room.

He hurries up the path, thrumming with excitement. The wood smells of it - electric and alive with possibility.

This time, he manages to only flinch a little when the panther slinks out of the trees and falls into step with him.

 _Where are we going this time?_ she asks, sounding a little bored, but the flick of her ears betrays an interest. _Hunting?_.

"Yes," he says.

 _Good,_ she says. _But let's not go this way. It's boring to answer questions_. And she veers off into the underbrush. Nick follows, and suddenly they are no longer in a forest, but loping down a grassy hill.

"How did we do that?" he asks, striding as fast and fluidly as he can to keep up with her.

 _We went off the path. Many people walk_ that _way. It has tedious rules and guards._

Nick glances around them as they run and he can see what she means. The way he went before--it wasn't precisely easy, but there was the sense of a _way_ , and maybe more than a few. But this terrain is nothing like that and it overwhelms him a little. He never liked the wilderness much, and this wilderness is a collage of constantly changing terrain. It's subtle--Nick would be hard pressed to describe precisely how he can tell that one patch of field is different from another patch of nearly-identical field, and that they are two different worlds, and different again nearly each time he sets his foot down.

His lungs start to burn after a few minutes, but in no way does that dampen his utter joy at having figured it out. They run until Nick has to stop to breathe.

"What do I call you?" asks Nick once he gets his breath back.

 _Parl_ , she says. _What are we hunting?_.

And that's how Nick finds his way back to Romanov.

*

It's much easier after that. Nick can sort of unfocus his brain whenever he wants, and if he looks the right way, he can always see the blue path out. Nick goes most afternoons, after school but before dad has come out of his study to order them dinner. And Romanov never turns Nick away if he's home. Instead he incorporates Nick into whatever he's working on when Nick arrives. There are no 'lessons', there are just directions and orders, and sometimes explanations, all in service to some truly brilliant projects. If Nick does ask questions, Romanov almost always answers them, but they're usually so busy _doing_ magic - real, important magic - that Nick doesn't have time to even think of questions to ask. Sometimes Grundo is there, too, and Romanov teaches them both. 

Mini is always delighted to see Nick. She curls her trunk around him and asks if he's fully grown yet. She seems to expect him to get a lot bigger. Parl comes along for some of the lessons, keeping a respectful distance from Slatch, but listening in. Whenever Romanov isn't home, Nick and Parl go exploring instead. At first he lets her pick their direction, but he starts to realise that she tends to pick wild worlds, or wild parts of worlds, and Nick wants to see _people_. They decide to take turns.

*

It isn't long before Nick develops a certain sense for what world he's in. It's almost a flavor in his head. One of his favourite worlds tastes of spice and over-ripe oranges. Yet another tastes like cold mornings and mint toothpaste. And these stick in his head, the subtle differences in flavour of the similar worlds in a series until he gets quite good at navigating.

One afternoon, after lessons, Nick follows Grundo back to Blest so they can keep discussing the project they're both helping Romanov build (It's a capsule that seems as light and flimsy as a soap bubble, but is reinforced with greatly complex magics so that it will withstand the pressures at the bottom of a great sea). Blest tastes of black tea and wood. It's a comforting sort of taste, despite some of the events Nick experienced there.

Grundo has been half-adopted by Maxwell Hyde, and Maxwell and Romanov seem to have started to wage a slow war over Grundo's future: The post of the Merlin versus whatever else Grundo might want to do. Nick asks if he minds, and Grundo shrugs.

"I haven't decided yet. They teach me different things. And this way I can still see Roddy." Grundo and Roddy seem to have patched up their relationship somewhat. When you've known someone almost your whole life, Nick supposes you make an effort.

And Nick remembers with a half-pleasant, half-uncomfortable twinge that it's been months since he last saw her, when Maxwell Hyde returned him home and she moved in with Mrs. Candace to begin her training as the next Lady of Governance.

As luck would have it, Roddy is visiting her grandfather when they stroll Ayewards right down into Maxwell's back yard. Nick narrowly misses a daffodil, and he can hear voices in the house - Maxwell's, Dora's…and Roddy's.

Grundo leads the way through the back door into the kitchen where they find all three of them sitting at the small kitchen table.

"Boys!" says Maxwell, standing and smiling at them in greeting. Nick feels a grin stretch across his face of its own volition. He's even fairly happy to see Dora.

Nick shakes hands with Maxwell and says yes, his magical schooling is coming along, thanks, and he nods at Dora, and then his eyes rest on Roddy. She's watching him, her mouth curved up, and he can _feel_ his grin get soppy, which makes her frown and look away. He can't help himself at all.

As most things seem to go in Maxwell's house, a quiet afternoon resolves itself into a night of misadventure. Judith shows up with both twins in tow (now much more well-behaved in the presences of a mother who isn't under a glamour).

"Dad," Judith says. "We've come into possession of an unexpected...pet."

"Can we keep him, grandfather, _please_?" says one of the twins - Nick thinks it's Isadora, but would not go so far as to wager anything on it.

"Oh, pooh, we don't want to keep that smelly little thing. Send it away at once!" says Ilsabil.

At Judith's nudge, Isadora produces a tiny creature from behind her back. It is scaly and has a tail like a lizard, but the rest of it is more birdlike.

"Oh, good gracious," says Maxwell Hyde. "A newborn cockatrice! How in heaven's name did you get that?"

"It hatched in the backyard," says Judith. "We didn't even notice until it was already free from its shell. Every mouse in the yard is dead, but lucky for us it doesn't seem to be very powerful yet."

Here Roddy speaks for the first time in the encounter. "It's not from Blest."

"I should hope not," says Maxwell. "Patrick of Ireland eradicated them all."

"Even if he missed one, I can tell this particular creature is from at least three worlds along," says Roddy firmly. "Ayewards. The land doesn't recognise him."

"I could take it back to the right world," Nick hears himself saying, "On my way home."

"Oh? Good lad," says Maxwell, looking relieved. "Will you know the right world? Roddy, can you show him?"

And that is how Nick finds himself stepping carefully Ayewards, holding Roddy's hand.

"This is much better than Helga's way," says Roddy. "This is more like Romanov's. You _have_ been learning, haven't you?" 

"Loads," says Nick. "No one would show me, at first. I had to figure it out on my own. Well, and with Parl."

"Parl?" she asks. And just then, Parl slinks along beside them and Roddy startles back with a jerk and a gasp.

"Parl, this is Roddy. Roddy, meet Parl. I think she's what some people call a totem animal, but Romanov says she's real."

"Oh, hello," says Roddy in a voice that is just nearly steady. Nick can tell she's on the verge of saying something icy about him having a pet at least as dangerous as the Izzies.

But then Parl nods at her in a strangely grave, not very panther-like gesture and Roddy holds her tongue. They all settle back into walking through layers of world.

It's only the work of a handful of minutes after that until Roddy says, "Stop." They are in a dry place, full of scrub, but it looks and feels like it's full summer, and perhaps it isn't always so parched. There are stones and tenacious green-brown plants all around them, and trees in the distance. She takes the baby cockatrice out of the pouch Maxwell gave her, and hesitates. "Should we just leave it? I mean, it's only a day old at the most."

"Do you want to meet a fully grown one?" Nick asks.

"No, but--"

 _Stand alert_ , says Parl. _The mother comes._

"Quick, put the baby down in front of us," says Nick.

Roddy scrambles forward and gently places the strange wiggling little thing before them. She scrambles back and says "Don't look it in the eye." 

"Let's not stick around long enough to chance it," suggests Nick. "Let's go."

"No, wait," says Roddy, unexpected firmness in her voice.

Nick stops, but he remains poised, keeping the direction back to Roddy's Blest in the corner of his eye. He slides his hand back around hers, knowing that if he has to, he can most likely get them out of this world fast enough, and her fingers wrap around his hand, smaller but strong. He can feel her pulse rabbiting as fast as his is where their wrists meet.

Then the mother cockatrice comes out from behind a stone that didn't look big enough to hide it before. A wave of sensation - of thought - hits them. The cockatrice is angry, confused, glad, suspicious all at once, and it comes across in angry slaps and colours of feeling. He feels Roddy tighten her hand around his almost painfully, and then she's projecting back a wave of helpfulness, of sympathy. Nick sees how she's doing it and adds in a thread of trustworthiness, of no-harm-meant. He thinks even Parl is helping. They don't look above the creature's bird legs and tail, but they fair blast it until the anger and suspicion slowly recedes even as the creature comes forward.

"I think it's time to leave," Nick says quietly, and he tugs them sideways back toward Blest. The cockatrice, thankfully, can't or doesn't want to follow.

"Thanks," says Roddy, after a minute of trudging silently Naywards. 

"Of course," says Nick. 

"I think someone brought that cockatrice to Blest," she adds. "There have been a lot of people importing magical creatures. After those salamanders last summer, exotic animals are in fashion, and the smugglers have started to try to out-do each other in exoticness by getting them from neighbouring worlds. It's a mess by now, and the Merlin is a too _nice_ to be as mean about it as he should." She pauses. "I wish Grundo were already the Merlin."

"He might not want to be," says Nick.

She glares sideways at him. "So he should be like his father, running off to live on his own and doing nothing with his talents."

Nick shifts uncomfortably. Everything had been going so well. But he isn't going to back down on _this_. "Romanov does important things for all sorts of worlds," says Nick. "Just because he mostly charges money for them doesn't make them any less important."

She huffs her disagreement, and they travel the last few minutes in silence.

It isn't until they alight back in Maxwell's yard that Nick realises he's still got Roddy's hand comfortably wrapped around his. Toby and the Izzies come running, demanding to know how it had gone and if the baby had found its mother. 

The Izzies see their clasped hands and one immediately exclaims, "Yech, boys _always_ have such sweaty hands." 

The other responds, "Oh, I do adore holding a boy's hand. They've got such large and warm hands!" 

Roddy blushes and scowls and carefully slips her hand from his.

*  
Nick doesn't get back to Blest again until just after Roddy's sixteenth birthday. He walks to Mrs. Candace's house with a tiny bird carved from a wood that sparkles like gold tucked into his hand. He was given it in a world where most of the land had broken into small islands, and everything was made from golden driftwood.

When Roddy sees him at the door, she grins. When he gives her the bird, it stirs in her hand and whistles her name. That enchantment took him a feverish week to perfect, and every minute is worth it when her face lights up in surprise. Her smile is wide when she invites him in for tea. They don't argue once, but that is because Nick has learned which subjects to avoid.

*

A month later, when summer has taken hold in Blest, Nick arrives on Mrs. Candace's doorstep again. It's late afternoon, and he knows Roddy will be done with her lessons and duties.

Mrs. Candace herself creakily opens the door.

"Ah, Nick. Do come in. Arianrhod has just gone to change for tea."

Nick steps inside and says, "How do you do, Mrs. Candace?" 

"Well enough," she says. He allows himself to be ushered into the delicate sitting room, but refuses tea and biscuits. He has other plans.

Roddy trots down the stairs saying, "I heard you call for me, Mrs. Candace, what -" and stops when she sees him. "Nick!" she exclaims and smiles a genuine smile before she damps it down to a polite one.

Nick gets to his feet and tries to squelch the flood of nervous adrenaline. "Hello, Roddy," he says. "I just came to ask if you'd like to come with me and see this world I found. It's really amazing."

Roddy hesitates, looking at Mrs. Candace.

"Go on, child," Mrs. Candace says. "You can certainly skip tea in order to explore another world."

Nick carefully takes Roddy's hand and pulls them both Ayewards.

They have tea (or in Nick's case, something a bit like coffee, but even more delicious) in a little seaside town called, as near as Nick can tell, Coeur de Sel, where the people speak something like French, but a sort that neither of them can really understand. They have to play charades with the good-natured proprietress, and she gives them extra cakes for Nick's exaggerated pantomime of coffee, while Roddy laughs herself breathless at him. 

Nick thinks that a year ago, he wouldn't have taken being laughed at very well. But something has shifted in his head now that he's been all these places and felt the extent of his own power underneath his skin. Most things just aren't as embarrassing as he used to find them, and he sees that being stroppy about it has never helped the situation. So his face heats up when Roddy laughs at him, but when he really _looks_ at her and finds her eyes crinkled as she gasps for air, he realises he's achieved exactly what he set out to do: Roddy is enjoying herself.

Darkness falls around them, and the air smells like the sea. The whole town lights up with their own version of fairy lights. They look a bit like tiny oil lamps, but Nick thinks they're fuelled by magic. They walk right to the edge of the water and chase the waves, laughing when they get splashed.

Nick returns her to Mrs. Candace's at full dark, but not so late that everyone has gone to bed. Roddy says, "Thank you, Nick," and she stands on tiptoe to brush his cheek with her mouth before she ducks inside.

He nearly botches the transit back to his world he's so stunned, and he lays in bed that night unable to go to sleep for happiness.

*

Just after Nick turns seventeen, while he is helping Romanov build new shoes for Mini, Romanov gets an urgent call from Maxwell Hyde. They go at once, Slatch and Parl streaking along after them through the land between worlds. When they alight in Maxwell's yard, they can see the orange glow off in the distance, and smell the smoke. Grundo and Toby both come running at them from the back door. They look worried and both try to talk at once.

"...fire in the southeast quadrant -"

"Maxwell's gone to try to contain it but it keeps spreading -"

"Merlin on the way..."

"Roddy and Mrs. Candace went with him and we're only here waiting for you," finishes Grundo.

"Alright," says Romanov. "All three of you, follow me."

They fall into step behind him and Nick can feel him doing something to the ground, to the distance, or maybe just to them. Whatever it is, it makes the ground zip by underneath them, and each step brings them much closer to the orange glow until it resolves itself into flames.

They stop just before the smoke gets too terrible to see.

"Right," says Romanov. "Maxwell will have organized all the weather workers they can find and be doing what they can to bring on a storm. We're going to have to do something about the smoke first, then we'll see about containing it." He fixes Nick with one of his more penetrating stares. "You're the most efficient at transmutation. What can we change the smoke into, quickly?"

Nick thinks hard, ignoring the slight catch in his throat whenever he tries to draw a breath. "Birds," he says at last. "Crows. I can make it so they'll dissolve on contact with water." Romanov nods once and turns to Toby and Grundo.

"You two, find the edges of the fire on this side of town and stop it advancing. Do you think you can do that? Just long enough for Nick to change the smoke, and then he can help you. I'm going to contain the other edges." At their slightly apprehensive assent, he strides off east around the edges of the fire. They all three exchange a look of slight panic, but Nick thinks about how most of his favourite people are somewhere near the fire, and he pulls himself together. Crows. He's done birds before loads of times. He looks up at the darkened sky and he imagines the smoke like a tangle of computer cords, then he picks the point right above the worst of the fire and starts winding the smoke around and around into the tightest tangled lump he can manage. He winds and he winds, and he gathers escaping wisps back in until there is a terrific swirling ball of smoke above the city.

Nick looks at it and he thinks about the tiny particles making up the whole and he tells them as firmly as he's ever done that they are now crow particles. Slowly, slowly, they leap together, millions of them connecting to form strange crow-like shapes, until instead of a swirling ball of smoke, there is a wheeling ball of black flying figures. He carefully loosens his hold on them, giving them a shove east, toward the water. They veer off in a massive formation and stream out of the city. Nick crafts the spell to keep going, to keep spinning each new bit of smoke up into the centre where it will change and go flying toward the ocean.

Satisfied for the time being, he turns his attention to Toby and Grundo, who have walked closer now that they can breath. Nick jogs to catch up to them, finds them confronting a row of burning shops. And they _are_ containing it, Nick realises. Grundo seems to have constructed a sort of twisted wall down the middle of the street that absorbs any fire coming near it, but even with Toby adding length and strength, it's taking a lot of power to hold it up.

"The fire is burning green," says Grundo, quietly, not giving much indication of how hard he must be working to hold onto the wall. Nick puts a hand on his shoulder and adds his own magic to Grundo's anyway. Grundo grunts in slight relief, and points at the base of the fire where it licks up from the door frames. It _is_ green. Nick thinks he hears a kind of singing. He hadn't heard it before over the roar of the fire, but in a strange way, it _is_ roar. This isn't normal fire.

That's when Nick sees figures making their way down the street toward them. As they approach, they resolve into Roddy, supporting Mrs. Candace along by the arm. They are both covered and streaked in soot. He, Toby, and Grundo lope toward them without any discussion, but Toby gets there first, and slides under Mrs. Candace's other arm.

"Bless you, child," she says creakily, her voice rough.

"Oh, thank the gods you're here," says Roddy. Her voice is scratchy, too. "It's a phoenix fire. The city has been trying to fight it like a regular fire, but Mrs. Candace and I felt the rebirth of a phoenix. Some ignorant fool must have smuggled a blasted _phoenix_ into their _sitting room_." Her eyes are fierce with anger and indignation, and Nick feels a wave of relief wash over him that she is here, unharmed.

Grundo throws his arms around her in a quick hug, and Nick is a little annoyed that he's gotten there first, but he forgets all about that with what she says next.

"Anyway, I've got to go back and lead the rescue workers through the worst of it. There are still people in there, and it's too strong a fire for them to clear a path like they ordinarily do." She brushes her hair off her face and turns to Mrs. Candace.

Mrs. Candace coughs a little but instead of objecting to Roddy's plan, she croaks, "Quite right. I shall call on the little people and elementals to help correct the imbalance."

Roddy and Toby help seat Mrs. Candace on a street bench on their side of Grundo's wall.

Nick says it before he can think about it: "I'll come with you."

Roddy looks at him in surprise. "You don't need to--" she starts.

"I want to come," Nick says, surprised at the firmness in his own voice. He feels like another shift must have taken place somewhere inside him when he wasn't looking. Perhaps it is that Romanov always treats him as if he is already grown, or perhaps it is simply that he's gotten older, but Nick can suddenly see where, before, he might have stepped back and let someone else take care of the problem simply because it wasn't _his_ problem. But Roddy is the kind of person who considers most problems in her vicinity _her_ problems. It has become clear to him that Roddy can't be trusted to choose her own safety over anything, and so Nick needs to come along and look after her himself. Besides, Romanov hadn't even hesitated when he'd come along to help.

He meets Grundo's eye and sees the thanks there before Grundo turns his attention back to his anti-fire wall. 

"I'm coming with you," says Nick again. "Now let's go."

They leave Toby conjuring Mrs. Candace a glass of water and trot off down the fiery, faintly scorched streets. The rescue squads are several blocks away and carrying on with their work in Roddy's absence. But several look up at their approach, and a general air of relief sweeps through them. There are twenty or so men and women, nearly unidentifiable beneath the soot, and they all have some sort of official bulky uniform on. Nick thinks it's probably the Blest equivalent of a fire fighter's uniform, though it doesn't look much like the ones from his world.

"Right," says Roddy. "You take ten, and I'll take ten and--"

"No," says Nick. "I'm coming with _you_." Nick thinks she's about to argue but then a house near them collapses in on itself with a tortured groan and crackle. Roddy and he both jump back. 

"Fine," she snaps, and then yells, "This way!" The rescue workers flock to them even as Nick follows Roddy toward the fire. She picks a path that has mostly been cleared, and he feels her doing some unfamiliar piece of magic. She doesn't look any different, but for some reason Nick feels as if she's grown roots down into the earth. He eyes the burning buildings around them uneasily, and thinks about how difficult this must have been before he cleared the smoke. 

He can still feel his smoke spell in the back of his head, a steady drain, and he's also still putting a bit into Grundo's wall, but it's rather like the kind of exertion a person gets from climbing stairs, and Nick has climbed a lot of metaphorical stairs in the past two years, so he knows he can go on for quite a while like this.

He prods gently at the fire and feels it nearly slap him with its ferocity, and he wonders if it even _can_ be put out.

"Here," shouts Roddy suddenly, stopping in front of a house. She snatches Nick's hand and tells him, "Like this." And then she does something that holds the fire back. He tightens his hold on her hand and willingly lends his power, though he isn't quite sure how she's doing what she is. He gets the impression that she's smothered it somehow, as if she's thrown earth on it from all directions at once. It's too strong to be completely smothered, but while she maintains the spell, the flames are nearly non-existent. The rescue crew wastes no time. Five of them rush into the house, shouting for a response from whoever must be trapped inside.

"That one!" Roddy shouts again, pointing with her free hand. And the fire in the house four over from then gets dampened. Three other rescue workers rush for it.

Nick can feel the drain now. It's not unbearable, but it is significantly more noticeable than anything else he's done today.

"One more?" Roddy murmurs at him.

"Yes," he says, just as the first five come rushing out, carrying a little girl in her pyjamas, and helping her mother along. Roddy dampens another house and five of the fresh rescuers sprint for it while those remaining gather around the mother and little girl. The mother tries to dash back in, but a worker holds her back, and Roddy lets go of that house as she dampens yet another. They gather roughly eight survivors from the area before Roddy is leading them on to do the same a half a kilometre away. Ten more singed survivors. And again, twenty more. 

On and on they go, and Nicks' fingers are cramped from clutching Roddy's hand but he refuses to let go. His chest is feeling a little tight but he keeps on because Roddy is keeping on.

They get to a run-down sort of block that has obviously been partially looted, although there are no signs of the looters now among abandoned houses and broken windows. Roddy points at a house and the flames waver and dampen. Two people come tumbling out, seemingly oblivious to Roddy and Nick and the few harried rescue workers that have kept up with them.

"We have to go back and get it! It's worth five million pounds," the man shouts. He once had a large moustache, but half of it is completely burnt off.

"You _fool_ ," said the woman. "Five million pounds is worth nothing when you're ashes." She dashes down the steps toward them, but the man turns and runs back into the house.

"No!" Roddy cries. Some of the flames have slipped their grasp and the man jumps back from them, his eyebrows now gone the way of his moustache. Then the fire gets free completely and all of them are forced to retreat several houses down. The house fairly _blooms_ with fire, great licking tendrils of it from every window. Then it seems to suck _inward_ for a brief breathless second just before it roars back up and explodes outward. 

Nick doesn't even think, he just jerks Roddy down to the cobble stones and slams up layer upon layer of the hardest wall he can think of, a mostly-invisible dome covering all of them that are left in the street. Flames and debris hit the wall in a sudden hot, frightening rush. When they clear, they see the ruins of the house just as a magnificent bird, larger than anything Nick has seen outside of a dinosaur museum, takes flight. It's feathers are nothing but flames. They watch it arrow into the sky and then disappear as if a curtain has shut behind it.

"See what you've done!" shouts the man, suddenly, making Nick jump. He tentatively releases his death grip on the wall, trying to draw a breath all the day down to the bottom of his lungs, and flexes his fingers around Roddy's hand.

" _Me_ ," shouts the woman. "You've burnt your house to the ground!"

Nick has had enough. He is singed in more places than he can count, he feels shaky from nearly being roasted alive, and Roddy is looking pale with shock. Nick opens his mouth, but it's Roddy who speaks first.

"Shut up," she says in weary disgust. "You two can keep arguing later." She stares at them and suddenly vines erupt from under the cobblestones, snaking up fast and winding around both the man and the woman. They both try desperately to wiggle away as soon as they realise what is happening, but they're already far too tangled by then.

Roddy sways a little and then slumps into Nick's side.

"What should we do with them?" asks Nick.

"Hand them over to the Merlin," she says. She extends her free hand in a curiously imperious gesture and a tentacle of vine flows out and into her hand. She uses it like a leash for their prisoners as they follow the rescue workers back to street where they've set up a first aid camp. The fires in the rest of the city seem to be going out on their own now that the phoenix has risen, but even if they weren't, the sky has started to spit rain, and soon there is a small downpour. It feels good.

Nick finds a bench like the one they left Mrs. Candace on and they sit down, finally unclenching their cramped hands. Roddy lashes the prisoners to a nearby tree with a flick of her fingers, gagging them by vine after they start to complain. 

They sit in silence for a long while as people rush by them tending to burn victims or carrying messages. The people seem to multiply, until finally Nick sees Maxwell Hyde striding along, the Merlin at his side.

"Maxwell!" he shouts, surprising himself with the roughness of his own voice. Maxwell startles, stops, and then strides in their direction. 

"Roddy, Nick!" he says. "How did you get here? Where are Toby and Grundo and Romanov, and for that matter, where is Mrs. Candace?"

The Merlin has followed Maxwell, and he carefully unlashes the prisoners as Roddy and Nick finish explaining.

"Nicely done, you two," says Maxwell. "Why don't I send you back to my house while I round up the others? I think we can safely leave the rest to the officials. You've done your bit and more."

At their ascent, Maxwell nods, and they find themselves sitting in his kitchen. It is oddly hard to adjust to the utter normality of it after wandering burning streets for most of the night.

"Tea," says Roddy. She gets carefully up and puts the kettle on. She wanders the kitchen, looking aimlessly in cupboards as if she's hungry, but she doesn't take anything down. Finally she comes back and sits on the chair adjacent to Nick. She fidgets a bit as if she still feels like she should be doing something.

"Thank you for helping me," she says, finally.

Nick nods. Then he thinks, with a curious lack of apprehension, _This is where I kiss her._ So he says "Roddy," and when she looks up at him, he leans over the table, pauses for a breath, and then presses his mouth to hers. It takes her a moment to respond, but then she makes a strange strangled noise, and kisses back.

Then the kettle whistles and they spring apart. Roddy is blushing, and Nick rather thinks he is, too. But that doesn't mean he isn't going to kiss her again after she takes the kettle off.

*

When Roddy is eighteen she is undergoes the ceremony that will make her the Lady of Governance. Mrs. Candace, more elderly than ever, but still sharp, retires at her home. The government gives Roddy her own house. Nick is there for the ceremony, and he is one of many who helps her move into her new house afterwards. He finally meets her mother and father. They seem a little absentminded, but still obviously proud. He also meets her _other_ grandfather for the first time, though he'd seen him before, vaguely. When he asks to be introduced, she seems surprised. 

"You can see him?" she asks. 

"Yes," he says, puzzled. "He's right over there by the cakes."

"I though I - never mind," she says.

So Roddy takes him over and says, "Grandfather Gwyn, meet my boyfriend, Nick. Nick, this is my mother's father, Gwyn."

"It is nice to meet you," says Gwyn gravely, and Nick returns the sentiment. He can see Roddy's fierceness in him, and it makes Nick inclined to like him.

Then Gwyn smiles unexpectedly at both of them and says, "You will come visit me in a year from today. I'll send my car." And then he quite simply vanishes, and one of the Izzies asks them who they were talking to. He thinks it's Isadora, who has been actively trying to be less annoying lately.

Roddy shrugs. "My grandfather." Isadora looks at them a bit suspiciously but goes off to flirt with one of the hereditary warlocks.

After everyone else has finally gone home, they go off to celebrate privately in Coeur de Sel.


End file.
